Bolgatanga, Sept. 23, GNA – The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese has launched a local governance project in the Upper East Region to create awareness on the need for the citizenry to participate in governance activities at the local level.
The programme is expected to cover citizens in some selected districts in the Upper East and Northern regions on the need to participate in governance activities at the local level.
The project is intended to build the capacities of the Justice and Peace Commissioners on what local governance was about as far as the Ghanaian law was concerned and how citizens could participate at the local level so that activities of government would be meaningful to them.
The project would run in nine districts namely; the Garu, Zebilla, Talensi, Bongo Districts, Bawku Municipal, Kassena-Nankana East, Kassena-Nankana West, Builsa North Districts of the Upper East Region, and West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region, and was expected to end in November this year.
Launching the project, Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, Bishop of the Diocese, said even though the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) performs its role of educating citizens on their political and civic duties, there was still the lack of knowledge among many about how government functions.
He said the high level of illiteracy contributed to why citizens were not able to participate in discourse and dissatisfaction stemmed from the way politics was done in the country.
Bishop Agyenta said the level of dissatisfaction in local governance was because “in Ghana, no matter how you try, you can never be neutral and whether you like it or not people are going to identify you with one party or the other.”
He said that decentralization was only on paper adding that for people to effectively participate in governance, the facilities should be brought to the local level to ensure that people stayed where they were and still participate in issues of governance.
Bishop Aygenta called on stakeholders, especially at the national level to make the needed efforts to come down to the community level to ensure that citizens participated and contributed effectively in governance.
Addressing stakeholders including various District and Municipal Chief Executives on the theme: “Local Governance in Ghana: Medium of Development,” Reverend Father Clement Kwasi Adjei, the Director of Governance, Justice and Peace Directorate at the National Catholic Secretariat, said governance was an integral part of every society and the rate of development in any society depended on its system of governance.
Rev Adjei said “Ghana by the 1992 constitution operates a centralized system of governance with delegation of powers to the local authorities to exercise such powers as are devolved or delegated by central government and in accordance with law.”
He reminded stakeholders that the local governance system was structured on the District Assembly concept where persons were elected to serve adding that there was growing apathy in the participation by communities members in the local governance structure.
This apathy, he said, affected the effectiveness of the local governance structure with its consequences including low development, poverty, rancour and partisanship.
Rev Adjei said the renewed call to action by the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo “to be citizens and not spectators, citizens not subjects” required that stakeholders; chiefs, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, religious leaders and other identifiable groups took the necessary initiatives to encourage members in communities to actively participate in local governance affairs.
He said the Catholic Church in Ghana has collaborated with government and NGOs to build responsible communities through advocacy, awareness creation among other projects, adding that “the essence is to build strong and viable congregants to champion the spiritual and physical development needs of their communities for growth, prosperity, peace and just society.”
GNA
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